Event To Decide Best Of Area`s Pier Groups

January 30, 1989|MARTY KLINKENBERG, Outdoors Writer

Fort Lauderdale`s Custom Rod & Marine is sponsoring a pier fishing tournament to determine South Florida`s best pier angler. Dania, Anglin`s, Pompano and Deerfield piers all will have monthly tournaments, the first of which begins Wednesday at Dania.

The competition goes to Anglin`s in March, to Pompano in April and Deerfield in May. In June, at a pier to be announced, first-, second- and third-place finalists from each will compete for the overall championship.

Eligible species are barracuda, cobia, grouper, mackerel, pompano and snapper. Contestants must enter at Custom Rod & Marine. The entry fee is $5 for each tournament.

All fish entered must be in season and of legal minimum size. Fish must be weighed and certified in writing by the pier tackle shop and certifications must then be presented to Custom Rod & Marine. For information, call 561-5227.

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As many as a dozen boats, including several Whitbread Round-the-World challengers, are expected for Friday`s 3 p.m. start of the 811-mile Miami to Montego Bay yacht race. The race, which begins in the Atlantic Ocean off Haulover Inlet, includes competition in Performance Handicap Racing Formula and International Offshore Rule classes. No sailors participating in the International Measurement Systems class have entered.

The Whitbread participants, who will begin their circumnavigation Sept. 2 off Portsmouth, England, will compete in IOR. Commodore Rucanoor, a 58-foot entry from Belgium, and With Integrity, an entry from Great Britain skippered by Andrew Coghill, plan to participate.

The course follows the northern tips of Great Isaac and Eleuthera islands and then heads southward through the Island Passage and around the tip of Cuba. The race record is 3 days, 3 hours and 40 minutes, set in 1971 by Windward Passage.

Sauce Sue, a Bristol 41 skippered by Commander Hardley Lawin and campaigned by the Jamaican Defense Force, is defending champion.

The race, sponsored by Storm Trysail, Montego Bay Yacht Club and the Jamaican Yachting Association, is expected to contain at least one local boat.

Race committee member Audrey Arbuckle has leased a 48-foot Cheoy Lee called Nueva Vida from Doug Sherron of Hollywood.

The skippers` meeting is 6 p.m. Thursday at Lauderdale Yacht Club.

The starting line for the Feb. 26 St. Petersburg-to-Fort Lauderdale race, the third event on the Audi Southern Ocean Racing Conference circuit, has been moved to a point directly off the end of The Pier in downtown St. Petersburg.

The start of the race was moved from directly off The Pier to 6 miles south of Pinellas Point 12 years ago in order to accommodate large, deep-drawing offshore yachts.

However, since the so-called maxi racers, who compete in sailboats rated at 70 feet or more, no longer participate, the starting line was moved back to a spot that allows for maximum spectator interest. Total length of the race now is 409 miles.

Approximately 15 boats are expected for the longest of the seven races in the SORC series, with 55 to 60 expected to take part in the overall series.

The SORC begins with triangle races run out of St. Petersburg Yacht Club on Feb. 23-24.

The Broward County Quality Control Board is in the process of establishing an artificial reef in water 145 feet deep just north of Las Olas Boulevard.

A barge deposited 500 tons of concrete on the site Jan. 3. Weekly trips have since been made and 10 trips will be made in all. The site will be designated the Port Everglades Reef, because two port piers were demolished to provide reef materials.

Loran coordinates for the reef, which is expected to produce catches of kingfish, snapper, grouper, amberjack and sailfish are 14261.9, 62107.5.

Waterway Cleanup, in which 2,500 volunteers helped rid 300 tons of trash from Broward County waterways in 1988, is scheduled for March 4.

Collection sites for this year`s cleanup will be announced. Volunteers will receive tickets at the sites as trash is turned in, making them eligible for prizes.

Those interested in participating can call 491-7016.

The United States Yacht Racing Union`s One Ton North American Sailboat Championship, sponsored by the One Ton Class Association, 50-Foot Class Association and the City of Miami, is scheduled for March 8-12. The event will run in conjunction with the Fifties` Association`s regatta, which will be run out of the Bayside Marina.

The One Ton regatta series will consist of seven around-the-buoys races. The schedule includes a practice race March 8, with competition beginning with two races the next day. Two races will also be held Friday and Saturday, with a final race Sunday.

Entry deadline is March 1. To be eligible for the One Ton championship, offshore yachts must rate in the level One Ton class, with a maximum International Offshore Rule rating of 30.55.

Trolling techniques, using live bait, fly fishing, the use of kites, boat rigging and tournament rules and procedures are among the topics to be discussed during complimentary seminars when the four-day World Exposition of Salt Water Sport Fishing comes to Miami`s Coconut Grove Exhibition Center March 16. Co-sponsored by Salt Water Sportsman magazine, the show will include exhibitors with a variety of marine products. Hours will be 10 a.m.-8 p.m. March 16-18 and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on March 19. Admission is $6. For information, call 1-407-747-9400.

Used yachts of 40 feet and more will be displayed at Miami Beach`s Sunset Harbor Marina during the Brokerage Yacht Show from Feb. 16-20. Hours are 10 a.m.-7 p.m. all show days. Admission is $5 for adults, $2 for children ages 6 to 12 and children under 6 are free.